Way home festival

Ask anyone who has camped with an air mattress, and they likely will have nothing good to say about the experience. More often than not, the mattress has a leak that leaves the occupants sleeping on the ground. Canadian entrepreneur Sawyer Pahl wants to do away with these leaky air mattresses, and is working on a much more comfortable alternative for campers. His solution to help you sleep while under the stars? The CompREST, a vacuum-sealed camping mattress that combines the portability of an air mattress with the durability of foam.CompREST is a foam camping bed that leverages the comfort and insulating benefits of foam while eliminating the major drawback to the material — its inherent bulkiness. To help make foam more portable, Pahl developed a vacuum-packing system that reduces the size of the bed by 20 percent . Before you head off for your next camping trip, just fold the bed, place it in its vacuum-sealable bag, and attach the vacuum. In just a few … [Read more...] about CompREST is a compactable foam camping mattress that sucks in a good way

Here at DT, Axiom Audio’s home theater speaker systems have long been favored by The Proprietor: I think the soundbite is “We felt like we were literally in the movie; the sound was astounding.” Now, Axiom is reciprocating some of that affection, enabling customers to customize speakers with a choice of six real-wood veneers, plus a choice of stains and three different feet, enabling the systems to integrate into a wide variety of environments and decor. Because, after all, if you’re putting enough time, energy, and money into a home theater system with these sorts of components, you’ve probably thrown time, energy, and money into your home environment as well, and it would be nice if those investments didn’t clash in big awful ways. “In debuting customizable real-wood veneers, Axiom is responding to the strong desire of premium speaker buyers for a look that is totally their own,” said Ian Colquhoun, Axiom Audio’s president. … [Read more...] about Get Wood with Axiom Home Theater Speakers

Chance the Rapper is preparing to color all over Tidal with some help from his famous friends. On Saturday, Tidal will exclusively live-stream Chance’s Magnificent Coloring Day festival.The one-day concert will be held at the Chicago White Sox’s home stadium, U.S. Cellular Field, in Chance’s hometown of Chicago. Chance will be coloring in the history books as Magnificent Coloring Day will be the first festival held at the stadium and the first concert there in more than 13 years. The festival will feature performances from Chance, John Legend, Skrillex, Alicia Keys, 2 Chainz, Tyler the Creator, Lil Wayne, and Lil Uzi Vert.Tidal’s roughly 4.2-million subscribers may be dwarfed by those of Apple Music and Spotify, but Jay Z’s streaming service has shown the ancillary value in streaming music festivals. Magnificent Coloring Day is the third festival Tidal will live stream in the last two months, following July’s One Africa … [Read more...] about Chance the Rapper, Tidal to live-stream his Magnificent Coloring Day festival

If you’re feeling fatigued from constant tech use, relief may be in sight. The organizers behind the National Day of Unplugging want you to turn off your phones, put your computer to sleep, and abandon your iPads. From sundown March 1 to sundown March 2, this new tech-free day urges people to take a Sabbath from the Internet and go get some gold old-fashioned face-to-face interactions.The National Day of Unplugging is an event organized by the Sabbath Manifesto, an project that highlights the benefits of taking breaks and living a balanced life. It’s created and orchestrated by members of Reboot, a non-profit group. From San Francisco to Danbury, CT, partner organizations are joining in and creating events in support of the day, hoping to show people how to let go of reliance on technology as a positive experience.Reboot’s National Communications Manager Tanya Schevitz, tells us the positive impact taking a tech break can have. “People want to stop living … [Read more...] about It’s National Day of Unplugging, and here are five ways Internet addicts can get through it

It’s the cardinal rule for nature lovers and goers everywhere — leave no trace. And now, one woman is helping everyone from hikers to music festival fanatics make good on that principle with her Comp-A-Tent, the world’s first fully compostable temporary shelter.Related: See here for current camping tents on the marketDesigned for “a long weekend of British weather,” this tent decomposes into carbon dioxide, water, and fertile soil after 120 days in a composting facility. And given how many tents are used in fairs and festivals around the world, this biodegradable, environmentally-friendly structure could have a huge impact on our collective carbon footprint.The brainchild of Amanda Campbell, who was an Architectural Studies student at University College London, these structures were the product of her frustration with the inefficiencies of the current tent situation. Most are simply discarded, clogging landfills with tent poles, plastic, and … [Read more...] about This woman invented a fully compostable tent for music festivals and beyond

invitations were sent out, a few inside reports that a team was working on the feature leaked, and then Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom went ahead and canceled his appearance at Cannes Lions advertising festival this week. Also, two years ago he said this: “I don’t see a future where video isn’t a part of Instagram in some way, it’s a matter of when.” It’s all but official – Instagram is about to become a very different app.Before we dive into all the “do we want an Instagram for video?” of it all, it should be obvious why this is happening. Vine has proven itself a hit in its infancy and while there are reasons why the app fares better on Twitter than Instagram does (really obvious, noteworthy reasons), it’s still managed to attain viral use – matching the same engagement rates as YouTube on Twitter is pretty impressive (although, again, Vine is owned by Twitter, and heavily promoted by it, so … common sense, … [Read more...] about Do we really want our Instagram with a side of video? (Because we’re getting it either way)

There are many reasons why we shouldn’t bring dinosaurs back from the dead, but damnit, it would be nice to have the option! This week, Nature magazine ripped the dinosaur posters off my childhood walls and burned my set of Dino Riders action figures. As it turns out, researchers took the science of Jurassic Park a little seriously and have been studying the half-life of DNA. The sad part is, those researchers found that even in a “perfect preservation environment” of -5 celsius, every bond between the nucleotides that make up DNA would be broken after 6.8 million years. Worse, after about 1.5 million years the DNA would “cease to be usable.” That’s a far shot from the 75 million year gap between us and the last group of dinosaurs, and it means we’re never going to discover a prehistoric sap-covered mosquito with any actual Dino DNA left in it — let alone enough to allow us to fill in the gaps to complete the… code … [Read more...] about Pumpkin kegs, dead dinosaurs, and rooting for the home team in this week’s Staff Picks

Virtual reality may not be in mainstream films, but it’s already hitting the indie movie scene in a big way.Last year, the Tribeca Film Institute proclaimed the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) would be “the new home for the virtual reality revolution”; this year it opened up a new VR area at the show. Tribeca isn’t the first show to feature virtual reality, but it’s one of the most internationally renowned film festivals to feature it.Movie theaters have been rolling out reclinable seats and 4DX theaters that spray wind and rain in order to increase the value of moviegoing in an age where home TVs now exceed 70 inches. The virtual reality experiences at TFF somewhat married that ideal of the tangible movie viewing experience being symbiotic with the movie itself. All of the virtual reality films on display were accompanied with some sort of physical installations inspired by the film.“I think there’s a huge … [Read more...] about VR films inspire awe and hourlong lines at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival

It’s 2012. Wires should be obsolete by now. If you still have cords running across your living room connecting the television to your speakers and media players, it’s time to consider some of these tools to turn your home theater system wireless. We’ll give you some tips and tricks on how to make them all work for your living room.Wi-Fi SpeakersMost smartphones and MP3 players will come equipped with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Apple Airplay connectivity, so help yourself to a slew of speaker systems that require no cables to hook your gadgets together.Our picks in the $100-range include the SonyHomeShare NASSV20i which can either stream music via Airplay or dock your iOS device to simultaneously play and charge. The sleek, Wi-Fi capable device can also stream music from Internet radio stations like Pandora and Slacker. If you own any other Sony gadgets, such as its Blu-Ray player or home theater system, the SonyHomeShare will stream music wirelessly to those … [Read more...] about The technophobe’s guide to wireless home theater gadgets

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are getting close to finishing their eleventh studio album, according to frontman Anthony Kiedis. And perhaps even more exciting, the Southern California rockers have been working on the record with famed producer Danger Mouse.Kiedis declared the band was, “In the home stretch” during a recent interview on a radio show called Jonesy’s Jukebox, hosted by The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones.Danger Mouse replaced legendary rock and hip-hop producer Rick Rubin on the project, who has worked with the band on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By The Way, and Stadium Arcadium. According to Kiedis, the Danger Mouse took a more involved approach to making the record, preferring to write songs with the band directly in the studio.“We had written two dozen songs before we got with him,” Kiedis said about Danger Mouse. “[He] is like, ‘Let’s keep a few of those, but let’s go write all new songs in the … [Read more...] about The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new Danger Mouse-produced record is ‘In the home stretch’